Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 28, 1990 TAG: 9004280374
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: TOM HOLDEN AND MARK O'KEEFE LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium
Robertson called the blast the latest assault in a "spiritual battle" that has included the arson of a Christian singer's office and the explosion of a bomb aimed at a Texas preacher.
The guard, Scott Scheepers, 33, was in stable condition at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital after surgeons treated him for shrapnel in his left thigh and for superficial burns on his stomach. No one else was injured.
Robertson hurriedly left a Regent University board meeting to pray with Scheepers in the emergency room.
"The tragedy is that this young father was injured by a man or an individual who seems to be deranged and intended to kill or maim me," Robertson said. "We know the package that contained the bomb was sent from North Carolina. We don't know any more than that."
After meeting with police and CBN security officers, Robertson said the bomb was "crudely made."
"Had it been more sophisticated, he'd be dead now," Robertson said.
The explosion, reported to police at 12:34 p.m., occurred in the first floor of the Corporate Support Building, formerly called the World Outreach Center. The building serves as the technical nerve center of the CBN complex.
Damage was minimal. Mail room workers were attending a regular noon chapel service.
Piles of boxes and packages stacked outside the mail room in a loading dock were undisturbed. The CBN transmission facility, in the south wing of the building near the mail room, was not affected.
The bomb was in a 6-inch-long rectangular package, CBN officials said. Inside, a pipe with a detonator was filled with small pieces of metal, said James M. Small, CBN director of security.
"It acted like a shotgun blast," Small said. "It was like a pipe going off and everything inside that pipe flying out. When the explosive device goes off, the shrapnel is supposed to disperse and kill somebody or create damage."
After the explosion, Small went to the mail room and found emergency workers tending to Scheepers, who had walked 150 feet to the front entrance of the building, where he apparently collapsed.
Small said he found paper and cardboard strewn about the mail room. Still on a small table in the back of the mail room was the package, with a slit on the side where Scheepers, an auxiliary police officer with the city of Poquoson, apparently opened it, Small said.
Small said the package contained printed materials that appeared to be newspaper clippings or press releases, but he did not know any more details.
After the blast, inspectors from the U.S. Postal Service; the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms; the Virginia State Police; Virginia Beach police; and the city Fire Department sealed off the building.
At least two bomb-sniffing dogs - a black German shepherd and black Labrador retriever - were used to search through stacks of packages in the mail room. About 3:30 p.m. the Labrador was taken outside by a state police handler to search the area around the building. No other bombs were known to have been discovered.
The local investigation will be handled by the Fire Department, but because the package arrived through the Postal Service, federal agents will also assume a key role in tracing the origin of the package.
A small parking lot on the west side of the red-brick, Colonial-style building served as a staging area for the investigation. It quickly became clogged with police cars, an ambulance, a fire truck, a dark blue Virginia State Police bomb disposal truck and an evidence recovery van.
Despite the attack, Robertson said no changes in security are planned.
Robertson said he was unshaken by the blast.
"I think that what we have to recognize is that we're in the spiritual battle. We're trying to help people, we're trying to bring the message of Jesus Christ to people.
"The work they are doing is effective. But it's dangerous."
by CNB